Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Flowers and
stuffed animals lay on the sidewalk as police continue to investigate
the scene of multiple shooting deaths at a home in Edmonton, Canada.Photograph: Jason Franson/AP/The Canadian Press

December 31, 2014 - EDMONTON, CANADA - The suspected killer of eight people in Edmonton, Canada, had a criminal record dating back to 1987
and used a stolen handgun in the murders before killing himself in
domestic violence that was “planned, deliberate and targeted,” police
said.

Police found one victim’s body on Monday and the remaining seven at a house elsewhere early on Tuesday. The killer committed suicide in a Vietnamese restaurant 19 miles northeast of Edmonton, the capital of Alberta.

Authorities disclosed the name of the first victim, Cyndi Duong, 37, but said no other identities would be made public until autopsies were carried out on New Year’s Day. The dead included two children.

Investigators have identified the suspected killer as 53-year-old Phu Lam, the Edmonton Journal reported, quoting unidentified sources. It said he was the co-owner of the house where the seven victims died.

Local media quoted neighbors as saying the gunman worked as a maintenance man at the restaurant where he died and had a history of being confrontational. Police said the weapon, a 9-mm pistol, was legally registered in British Columbia in 1987 and stolen in 2006.

Police said on Wednesday the eight murders and one suicide made the mass killing the deadliest in the history of the city, incorporated in 1904. Edmonton, population 878,000, recorded 27 homicides in 2013 and 27 in 2014 prior to the killings.

Police Chief Rod Knecht characterized the murders as premeditated domestic violence – he used the words “planned, deliberate and targeted” to describe the attack – and said there was no apparent link to drugs or gang activity.

“This is a horrific event for the city, and in my 39 years of policing I’ve never seen anything like it,” he told a news conference late on Tuesday.

Thanh Le, senior pastor at the Edmonton Vietnamese Alliance Church attended by Duong, her three children and parents, said her death had devastated the congregation. “It has shocked us”, he said. “There have been a lot of tears.”

There are about 220,000 Vietnamese Canadians, according to the federal government, many of whom arrived as refugees in 1979 and 1980. Edmonton’s Vietnamese community is one of the five largest in Canada. - Guardian.

December 31, 2014 - SHANGHAI, CHINA - At least 35 people have been killed and 42 injured during a New
Year’s celebration in central Shanghai. The tragedy might have been
caused by people rushing to pick up fake money thrown in the crowd.

The stampede happened shortly before midnight local time as a massive crowd was celebrating New Year in Chen Yi Square in Shanghai's Huangpu district, CCTV reports.

The injured, many of them students, have been rushed to a number of hospitals in Shanghai, including Changzheng Hospital, the First People's Hospital, Ruijin Hospital, and Huangpu District Central Hospital.

These fake $ bills rained down on a New Year's event in Shanghai, causing a stampede that killed 35

More scenes from the stampede via social media

Rescuers and first responders were deployed to the scene to help
those wounded. The authorities have set up a working group to
investigate the cause of the incident.

Although the
cause of the incident is still being investigated, state media and a
witness said the stampede began when people tried picking up fake money
thrown from a building overlooking the festivities.

Fake money had been thrown down from a bar above the street as a part of New Year celebrations, a man who declined to be identified told Reuters.

President Xi Jinping has ordered the Shanghai government investigate the incident as soon as possible and all other governments to ensure a similar disaster never happens again.

Security personnel (front) and policemen stand next to an entrance to a
hospital where injured people of a stampede incident
are treated, in
Shanghai, January 1, 2015. (Reuters/Aly Song)

Screenshot from Google Maps

One week before the New Year celebrations, Shanghai authorities cancelled the annual New Year’s eve 3D laser display which attracted nearly 300,000 people last year, according to Shanghai Daily. The reason behind cancellation was allegedly concern about crowd control issues.

A number of photos of the chaos in the aftermath of the stampede were posted on Chinese social media site Weibo.

Photos showed large crowds of people gathered at Shanghai’s waterfront area, The Bund, with a lot of police securing the area while the injured were receiving first aid on the road. - RT.

December 31, 2014 - GENEVA, SWITZERLAND -
In 2015, the world's most powerful atom smasher, the Large Hadron
Collider, will restart. The particle accelerator has already discovered
the Higgs boson, the so-called "God particle," and when it comes back
online after two years spent on upgrades, researchers suggest it could
discover other kinds of these God particles, as well as extra dimensions
of reality and the identity of the mysterious dark matter that makes up
most of the mass in the universe.

The Large Hadron Collider
(LHC) is the largest particle collider in the world, with a ring about
16 miles in circumference. It accelerates particles to nearly the speed
of light using close to 9,600 magnets, comprised of about 10,000 tons of
iron, more than in the Eiffel Tower. These magnets are made up of coils
of filaments that, if they were unraveled, would stretch to the sun and
back five times with enough left over for a few trips to the moon.

The
largest of the LHC's magnets weigh 35 tons, and are about 50 feet long.
They can generate a magnetic field more than 100,000 times more
powerful than Earth's. These magnets require cooling from liquid helium,
making the LHC the largest refrigerator in the world the magnets
operate at temperatures of minus 271.3 degrees Celsius, colder than
outer space.

In 2012, the atom smasher helped scientists discover
the long-sought Higgs boson, which helps grant mass to all particles
that have mass, such as protons and electrons. The Higgs boson itself
has a mass of 125 billion electron-volts, or more than 130 times the
mass of the proton.

Still, as rich as the harvest of results
surrounding the Higgs was, the LHC was designed to be even more powerful
than it has yet been. Just nine days after it first went live in 2008, a
faulty electrical connection between two of its magnets led to several
tons of helium escaping with explosive force, damaging dozens of
magnets.

Large Hadron Collider tunnel photograph by Maximilien Brice. (CERN)

Now, the LHC is set to return in 2015 nearly twice as powerful as its first run from 2010 to 2013.

"Doubling
the energy will have a huge impact on the search for new particles at
LHC," said experimental particle physicist Gabriella Sciolla, of
Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, who works on the ATLAS
experiment at the LHC. "The higher the energy, the heavier the particle
one can possibly produce."

One breakthrough the LHC could make
after it restarts is discovering what particles make up dark matter, one
of the greatest mysteries in the universe. Dark matter is thought to be
an invisible, enigmatic substance that makes up about five-sixths of
all matter in the cosmos.

"By going to larger energies at the
LHC, we increase the range of masses of potential dark matter particles
that we can examine," said experimental particle physicist Andrew
Lankford at the University of California, Irvine, who also works on the
ATLAS experiment.

The consensus among physicists so far is that
dark matter is made up of new kinds of particles that interact only very
weakly with ordinary matter. Dark matter cannot be explained by any of
the particles in the Standard Model of particle physics, the best
description there currently is of the subatomic world. They must
therefore arise from a new understanding of physics that goes beyond the
Standard Model. One possibility lies in an idea known as supersymmetry,
which suggests all known kinds of particles in the Standard Model have
as-yet-undiscovered partners. For example, electrons would have similar
cousins known as selectrons.

Scientists
say that the LHC cannot directly detect any dark matter particles.
However, after the LHC smashes protons together, any energy missing from
the aftermath might hint at the creation and existence of dark matter
particles, Sciolla explained.

A statue of Shiva engaging in the Nataraja dance at CERN, the cosmic dancer who performs his divine dance to destroy a weary universe and make preparations for the god Brahma to start the process of creation.

Another discovery the LHC could
make are more kinds of Higgs bosons. "The LHC proved one kind of Higgs
boson exist no one says there can't be a second or third or fourth,"
Sciolla said. "They could be more Higgs bosons with different masses,
and maybe even charge, as is predicted by supersymmetry."

Learning
more about how Higgs bosons interact with other particles could also
illuminate the nature of dark matter. "There could be very, very rare
interactions between Higgs and dark matter particles that could shed
light on what dark matter is," Lankford said. "Higgs could be a portal
into the dark sector."

And last, the LHC may discover the
so-called Z-prime or Z' boson. This particle is theoretically a heavier
version of the Z boson, a particle linked with the weak nuclear force
that underlies both nuclear fusion and radioactive decay.

Nearly
any grand unified theory a theory in physics that could explain all
known forces would suggest that Z-prime exists. This includes theories
that also suggest the existence of extra dimensions of reality beyond
the three spatial dimensions of length, width and depth and the fourth
dimension of time.

"Z-prime is much heavier than a Z particle,
something like tens of times the mass," Sciolla said. "Z-prime can decay
in a very simple way that yields two very energetic muons, which are
basically heavier versions of electrons. If we can detect the muon
signature of Z-prime, that would support models that predict the
existence of Z-prime."

With all this in mind, researchers at the LHC are greatly looking forward to 2015.

"As the LHC is waking up, a lot of people are excited right now," Sciolla said. "There's a lot of enthusiasm here." - FOX News.

Tyler Day Nursery teacher Jacqueline Dade-Mack holds her 3-year-old son as he gets a flu vaccination shot in October in Tyler, Texas. Associated Press

December 31, 2014 - UNITED STATES - This year’s influenza season started earlier than expected and is
sending more patients to the hospital, raising concerns this could be a
more severe outbreak than in recent years.

Thirty-six states are now experiencing high levels of flu activity, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, as this year’s flu vaccine may not fully protect against a strain known as influenza A H3N2 that is currently circulating and tends to be more severe.

Fifteen children age 18 and under have died from the flu as of Dec. 20, compared with four such deaths around the same time last year, according to the CDC. A number of hospitals are outpacing previous years, with some restricting visitors to prevent the spread of the virus.

“Our medical director said that in his eight years at the hospital, he had never seen double digits” in the number of patients hospitalized, said Jill Chadwick, a spokeswoman at the University of Kansas Hospital in Kansas City, Kan. It had a record 25 flu cases admitted as of Monday and two deaths.

Dr. Anna-Kathryn Rye, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Palmetto Health Children’s Hospital in Columbia, S.C., said the hospital is seeing two to three times the number of flu patients as in a normal season. “We are hoping this week will be the peak,” she said.

Common Symptoms

Fever, chills

Cough, sore throat, runny nose

Muscle aches, headache, fatigue

Nausea (more common in children)

Source: CDC

Distribution problems may be making it harder for some consumers to gain access to antiviral drugs given early in the illness. The CDC alerted pharmacies last week that there may be greater demand for these drugs earlier in the season. Agency officials said they have heard of anecdotal reports of a shortage of Tamiflu, a common antiviral medication.

CVS Caremark Corp. said some of its pharmacies may have intermittent shortages of the liquid version of Tamiflu, due to the supplier’s challenges meeting demand. But CVS said there has been no shortage of the capsule version of Tamiflu, and patients can ask their pharmacist about having the capsule versions compounded into a liquid, spokesman Michael DeAngelis said.

For patients of all ages, the hospitalization rate of flu patients so far is 9.7 people per 100,000 people in the general population, compared with 4.3 people per 100,000 last year and 5.5 people per 100,000 in the 2012-13 flu season.

Dr. Michael Jhung, a medical officer in the CDC’s flu division, cautioned that it was too soon to say whether this will be worse than recent years. “We never know how this season compares to the previous season until the end of the year,” he said.

This flu season has been dominated by the H3N2 virus, according to CDC. Vaccines configured in early February typically protect against three to four flu viruses, and this year’s included H3N2. However, the virus showed substantial changes, or mutations, in March. That means the vaccine, while still conferring some immunity, doesn’t work as well. H3N2 is associated with more hospitalizations and deaths.

The last time the H3N2 strain of flu was widespread was two years ago, and this season’s rate of hospitalizations for people age 65 and older is already outpacing the rate for 2012-2013. CDC officials said that suggests this flu season might be more severe, although it may mean the flu is simply striking earlier.

About 40% of Americans have been vaccinated for the flu, with 140 million vaccine doses distributed, said Dr. Jhung. Children under the age of 2, people age 65 and over, and people with chronic health conditions such as asthma are most at risk of severe illness from the flu. Between 5% and 20% of Americans get the flu, with 15 million to 60 million people afflicted each year.

The CDC is still recommending that unvaccinated people get flu vaccines because they might provide protection and reduce severe outcomes such as hospitalization and death, officials said.

Joel Sawyer, a 38-year-old political consultant in Columbia, S.C., was diagnosed with the H3N2 strain of flu last week and said he’d rarely felt so sick.

“It’s like a hybrid between a terrible cold and strep,” he said. “You alternate between hot and cold, hot and cold. You can’t get comfortable.”

At Mercy Medical Center in Des Moines, Iowa, hospital officials on Christmas Eve began limiting flu patients’ visitors to immediate family. “It’s more significant than we’ve seen over the past two years,” spokesman Gregg Lagan said. “It’s even catching individuals who have the flu shot.”

David Weber, an epidemiologist at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, said what differentiates this year is the spike in cases in mid-December and the flu’s relative severity.

The UNC Health Care system, which includes the 800-bed UNC hospital complex in Chapel Hill and dozens of doctors’ offices and clinics, has had 323 patients test positive for flu so far this season. The majority are H3N2, the strain for which this year’s flu shot has proved “less than a perfect match,” Dr. Weber said. Patients, particularly very old or very young ones, are showing up more sick than they might be in an average year, he added. - WSJ.

December 31, 2014 - YEMEN
- A suicide attack targeting Shiite rebels has killed at least 33
people who had gathered in a cultural center in the Yemeni city of Ibb.

The rebels, known as Houthis, had reportedly gathered at the cultural center to prepare for celebrations of the prophet Muhammad’s birthday over the weekend, AP reports. Witnesses said a strong explosion targeted the area.

Medical sources and residents told Reuters that at least 20 bodies, including women and children, were rushed to Ibb’s al-Thawra hospital. Another 13 bodies were taken to another hospital called al-Manar.

The provincial governor was reportedly among those wounded in the blast.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, though al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which has a strong presence in Yemen, has carried out similar bombings against the Shiite rebels in the past.

At least 34 people, including 25 Houthis, six tribesmen and three AQAP fighters, were also killed on Tuesday and Wednesday morning when fighting broke out in the Khubza and Almanaseh villages in Radaa district of central Yemen, Al Jazeera reports.

According to the Doha-based broadcaster, the violence erupted after Houthi rebels tried to seize the villages from local tribesmen.

Since September, the Houthis have captured large swaths of Yemen, including parts of the Yemen capital Sanaa in a protracted battle against the government of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi.

Hadi had previously warned that Yemen is facing “three undeclared wars” against Al-Qaeda, pirates in the Gulf of Aden, and the Houthi rebels, which he claims are being supported by Iran. - RT.

December 31, 2014 - MEXICO -
Authorities say the Popocatepetl volcano located just southeast of
Mexico City has registered an explosion that spewed a mix of steam, gas
and ashes about 3.5 kilometres (2.1748 miles) into the air.

Mexico’s
National Center for Disaster Prevention says that the flare up occurred
on Friday afternoon and that the amount of ash mix released was
“moderate.”

Popocatepetl is an active volcano, and the second
tallest volcano in the country. It is located 72 kilometres from the
capital, and close to Morelos, Puebla and Mexico states. - Global News.

A
series of small to moderate explosions occurred during December 26-27
at the volcano. The largest one, at 17:07 local time Friday, produced an
ash plume that rose 3.5 km above the crater.

Yesterday, CENAPRED
recorded 6 explosions. Night-time incandescence is visible at the
crater where a cake-like lava dome is growing, confirmed also during a
recent overflight.

This type of activity is still well within the
normal range of the current state of semi-persistent mild activity at
the volcano, and the alert level remains unchanged at "Yellow Phase 2". -
Volcano Discovery.

Ash plume from a moderately strong explosion at Popocatépetl on Friday

Aerial view of the crater of Popocatépetl during a recent overflight 19
Dec, showing the flat lava dome in the inner crater (CENAPRED)

December 31, 2014 - UNITED KINGDOM
- The British nurse who tested positive for Ebola was cleared to fly by
authorities at Heathrow Airport, despite concerns about her health. The
incident has sparked concerns over the effectiveness of the airport’s
screening.

Pauline Cafferkey, a community nurse originally from
South Lanarkshire, was returning from five weeks volunteering in Sierra
Leone with Save the Children when she raised concerns about her health
at Heathrow.
However, the 39-year-old was still given the
all-clear to board the British Airways flight to Glasgow on December 28,
according to Public Health England (PHE).

It was revealed Tuesday
that the nurse was being treated for Ebola in an isolation unit at the
Royal Free Hospital in London after being transferred from Glasgow
following a positive test for the virus.

Health officials said
despite raising concerns about her health, Cafferkey passed six health
checks at the airport before being allowed to board the plane.

Chief
Medical Officer Dame Sally Davies justified the decision to let
Cafferkey fly, but said the incident may prompt questions about whether
the airport should have been “more precautionary.”

When questioned about Heathrow’s decision, Davies said the nurse “was
cleared to travel because she did not have a significantly raised
temperature. It does raise a question about whether we should be more
precautionary.”

Cafferkey was returning from Sierra Leone on
Sunday evening on a flight from Freetown, via Casablanca. While at the
London airport she was screened for the Ebola virus, but requested a
second temperature test as she was worried about her symptoms.

Reuters / Andrew Winning

Officials
are attempting to contact all other passengers on the same flight as
Cafferkey. Roughly 100 passengers are still unaccounted for.

Davies
maintains the risk to public health is extremely low, but the nurse’s
co-workers, who were traveling with her, said the screening process at
Heathrow was “totally inadequate.”

Dr Martin Deahl, who
sat next to Cafferkey on a flight to the UK from Sierra Leone, told The
Guardian that public health was being put at risk by “totally inadequate” screening facilities at the airport.

He
further condemned PHE guidelines for those returning from Ebola-hit
zones, which allow those who have been in close proximity to the virus
to travel home on public transport.

Cafferkey was part of a group
of 30 NHS volunteers helping tackle the outbreak of Ebola in Sierra
Leone.

She has been described by colleagues as “terribly committed,” and previously told BBC Scotland she “couldn’t think of any reason not to go” to help fight the virus.

PHE
has responded to the criticism and confirmed it will review its
screening procedures, but insisted they were in line with other
international organizations that have sent volunteers to west Africa. - RT.

December 31, 2014 - EARTH - The following constitutes the latest reports of unusual and symbolic animal behavior, mass die-offs, beaching and stranding of mammals, and the appearance of rare creatures.

New Species Of Dolphin Filmed Venturing On Land To Eat

Australian humpback dolphins were just identified as a distinct species last month,
but scientists are already discovering just how impressive they really
are. For the first time, footage has been captured of the dolphins
employing a remarkable hunting technique — venturing onto land where
their prey can be easily gobbled up.
A team from Southern Cross University
had been following a pod of humpback dolphins up the Fitzroy River
estuary, near Queensland, when they heard some strange splashing sounds
off in the distance. When they looked closer, they discovered the
animals were actually thrusting themselves onto the shoreline in a behavior known as “strand-feeding”.

WATCH: Australian humpback dolphins strand-feeding.

Researcher Daniele Cagnazzi described it to Business Insider Australia as “an incredible event.” Fortunately, a camera was able to collect video of the rare sighting,
which had only been observed in these dolphins once before. “The
humpback dolphins were observed swimming a few metres away from and
parallel to the shoreline. This behaviour probably allows dolphins to
concentrate fish against the mud bank before charging at them at high
speed,” said Cagnazzi.

“On some occasions the fish were washed onto the shoreline by the wave of water associated with the dolphin’s beaching, resulting in a full body exposed beaching.”

Occasionally,
a hunting dolphin will become overeager and strand itself completely
out of water. By thrashing hard, it can usually work its way backward
into the water. If stranded for a long period of time, a dolphin can
suffer internal injuries as well as potentially lethal exposure to the
sun.

And Australian humpback dolphins in
particular would be well-advised to avoid becoming permanently stranded.
Although they are the latest species of dolphin to be identified by
science, biologists say that they may already be endangered due to various threats in their environment. - The Dodo.

Monarch butterfly eyed for possible U.S. endangered species protection

Monarch butterflies fly at the El Rosario butterfly sanctuary on a mountain in the Mexican state of Michoacan in this November 27, 2013 file photo.
Credit: REUTERS/Edgard Garrido/Files

Monarch
butterflies may warrant U.S. Endangered Species Act protection because
of farm-related habitat loss blamed for sharp declines in cross-country
migrations of the orange-and-black insects, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service said on Monday.

Monarch populations are estimated to have fallen by as much as 90 percent during the past two decades because of destruction of milkweed plants they depend on to lay their eggs and nourish hatching larvae, according to the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation.

The loss of the plant is tied to factors such as increased cultivation of crops genetically engineered to withstand herbicides that kill native vegetation, including milkweed, the conservation group says.

Monarchs, unique among butterflies for the regularity and breadth of their annual migration, are also threatened by widespread pesticide use and logging of mountain forests in central Mexico and coastal California where some of them winter, said biologist Karen Oberhauser at the University of Minnesota.

The Fish and Wildlife Service said on Monday a petition requesting federal protections for monarchs – filed by the Xerces Society and others – “presents substantial information indicating that listing may be warranted.”

The agency's initial review will take about a year to complete.

The butterflies, revered for their delicate beauty after emerging from a jade green chrysalis ornamented by gold stitching, are roughly divided into two populations in the United States according to their fall migration patterns.

Monarchs from east of the Continental Divide wing across 3,000 miles to Mexico, while those from west of the Divide in Rocky Mountain states like Idaho make a relatively shorter journey to California.

An estimated 1 billion monarchs migrated to Mexico in 1996 compared with just 35 million last year, according to Marcus Kronforst, a University of Chicago ecologist who has studied monarchs.

Monarch populations are tracked by an extensive network of professional and citizen scientists who make up part of the butterfly’s vast and loyal following.

“Almost every person I’ve talked to about monarchs has expressed a deep love and admiration for them that was often formed in childhood,” said Beth Waterbury, regional wildlife biologist for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game.The monarchs' navigation remains mysterious. While they are known to orient themselves by the sun's position, and by the Earth's magnetic field on cloudy days, it is unclear how new generations find their way to wintering sites they have never seen, Oberhauser said. - Reuters.

Another completely lost avian species: Couch's Kingbird flies from southern Texas to New York, United States

The Couch's Kingbird, a bright yellow bird usually not seen in the USA north of Texas and Louisiana,has been perching in Abingdon Square Park and other spots in the neighborhood, watched by dozens of bird watchers.

It's thought to be the first of its species to come to New York,
according to Phil Jeffrey, a scientist in the Department of Molecular
Biology at Princeton who photographed the visitor at the weekend.

On Monday morning, more than a dozen bird enthusiasts waited with
cameras on the corner of Washington and Jane Streets - one of the spots
where it's been seen.

WATCH: A rare Couch's Kingbird sighting in New York City.

Noa and Mayra Cruz, 47- and 46- year
old sisters from the Bronx, came to try to catch a glimpse of the
Kingbird. They've been into bird watching since seeing a pair a mourning
doves as they got off a Number 12 bus several years ago.

"There's a lot of nature," said Noa, "but no one noticed it. We didn't notice it for years."

Alex Burdo, 18, woke up at 3:40 a.m. in Fairfield, Connecticut and commuted into the city to try and see the bird.

A senior in high school, Burdo toted a camera with a large telephoto lens - a gift, he said, from the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

Family dog mauls baby in Saanich, British Columbia, Canada

A two-week-old B.C. girl is being treated in hospital for significant injuries she sustained in a dog attackby her family's Pitbull-Rottweiler cross-breedon Sunday.

The 16-day-old infant was rushed to hospital with significant head and
facial injuries after the dog attack early Sunday, police said.

The incident happened in Saanich, B.C., where police say the dog had lived with the family for about 17 years. It's not known why the dog attacked the child.

WATCH: Newborn mauled by family dog.

The dog's owners agreed to euthanize the animal, but police say they
are still mulling whether to lay criminal negligence charges in the
case.

"Any time an attack like this happens, we have to look at
the criminal side," said Const. Nawid Akbar of Saanich Police.
"However, all accounts are leading to it just being an unfortunate
accident. A very tragic event."

More Fish Found Dead in Sparks Marina, Nevada, United States

More fish are dying in Sparks Marina, a year after a massive die-off led to 100,000 fish dying and being replaced.

Sparks spokesman Adam Mayberry says due to an unforeseen unique biological anomaly, the marina has lost between 400 and 500 fish since Saturday, December 27, 2014. He says it's likely attributed to a “turnover” of the lake’s water due to the current cold snap.

Lake turnover can occur when there is a drastic change in weather and the layers of water with noted temperature differences begin to mix together, and when water that has been sitting at the bottom of the lake begins to mix with the layers of water above it. This can have an effect on a fishery such as the Sparks Marina, and it's what happened with the previous die-off.

The weather can cause dissolved oxygen levels to dip too low to sustain fish life, similar to what the Marina experienced in December 2013 when there was a complete die-off of trout, catfish and bass caused from low oxygen levels in the water.

The city is working with Nevada Department of Wildlife (NDOW) officials to monitor oxygen levels. Initial testing by NDOW has concluded low oxygen levels in some areas of the marina. Sparks says the impact of the low oxygen levels is dangerous to fish only. The water continues to be safe for dogs and people and there are no public health or safety concerns at the Marina.Sparks says the water in the Sparks Marina is tested routinely. The body of water is a 77-acre fresh water lake and is replenished daily from groundwater. The city pumps on average 2.5 million gallons of water from the lake on a daily basis. - KOLO.

Skunks Overrun Upscale Neighborhood Of Granite Bay, California, United States

It’s a stinky situation. A pest invasion in a Granite Bay neighborhood is causing some to take matters into their own hands.

“When you think you catch them all then another wave of skunks come in,” said Vince Matranga, a resident who is battling the skunks.

CBS13 went to see the damage the foul four-legged creatures are doing to the Granite Bay neighborhood.

The homeowner who lives here tells us it looks like someone took a golf club and practiced his swing on his front lawn. But he soon realized the problem is way stinker than that…literally.

“They’re digging up my grass,” said Matranga. “They’re looking for grubs and insects and making a big mess.”

WATCH: One Granite Bay Neighborhood Experiencing Skunk Invasion.

Matranga never thought he’d lose sleep over the small, striped species. But he says skunks are running amok in his upscale Granite Bay neighborhood. He trapped two overnight using eggs and peanut butter as bait.

“There’s one here looking right at me,” he said.

It’s the ninth and tenth he’s caught in the last few months.

And they’re not just targeting his house, the neighbor has trapped 10 himself. Brandt Jordan with Spiderman Pest Control says the problem is more spread out around the Sacramento area.

So why skunks, and why now? Jordan blames it on extreme weather. Our dry summer followed by heavy rainfall brought out skunks in search of food.

“A lot of the dryer weather too got rid of the food supply,” said Jordan.

The skunks are now attracting visitors. They keep a distance, but can’t resist.

For Vince, it’s torture.

“I got a little too close a few times and got sprayed…just threw those clothes away,” said Matranga.

As for those skunks in the cages, animal control will pick them up this week. Experts recommend anyone with a similar problem to keep pet food and water out of skunks’ reach.And if you’re in need, most animal-control services provide traps for skunks, which are typically also used for other wildlife like raccoons. - CBS Sacramento.

Marko Gondolo, second from left, and his daughter, Serafina, who were rescued from the stricken Norman Atlantic,
arrived at Elefsina Air Base outside Athens on Monday. Pool photo by Yannis Kolesidis

December 31, 2014 - VERBANIA, ITALY
- The death toll in a ferry fire off the Greek coast rose to 13 on
Tuesday, including two Albanian workers who died while trying to connect
a cable to the stricken ship. But prosecutors said that the number
could rise because of fear that passengers who boarded illegally might
have been trapped in the hold, where the fire raged.

Exhausted passengers from the ferry, the Norman Atlantic, continued to arrive by ship at various Mediterranean ports on Tuesday, but the authorities were unable to say with certainty how many people had been rescued in a 30-hour-plus operation that involved ships, planes and helicopters from Albania, Greece and Italy. High winds and stormy seas slowed ships carrying survivors.

Giuseppe Volpe, the prosecutor in Bari, Italy, whose office was given jurisdiction over the criminal investigation into Sunday’s fire, said the discovery of at least three stowaways — two Afghans and a Syrian — among the survivors suggested that there could be others who boarded illegally.

“The ship was transporting stowaways, hidden in the hold,” Mr. Volpe said at a news conference in Bari. “Our fear is that once we have recovered the wreck we will find other dead people on board.”

It remained unclear how many passengers had been on the boat, and how many had been rescued. Mr. Volpe said as many as 499 people may have been on board, not including any possible stowaways, but his office could verify only those who were rescued by Italian ships. The count was complicated after survivors were distributed among various vessels flying different national flags.

Mr. Volpe said his figures indicated that 179 people remained missing, but he said he hoped those passengers were on ships that had taken survivors to Greece. An Italian Navy ship remained off the Albanian coast to look for bodies.

The Italian Navy said Tuesday evening that the San Giorgio, a military ship carrying the highest number of survivors, was arriving in Brindisi, Italy.

Mr. Volpe’s office, in conjunction with the Albanian authorities, on Tuesday took legal custody of the Norman Atlantic, which will be towed to Brindisi. There, investigators will search the ship for evidence of other stowaways and try to determine the cause of the fire, which began early Sunday morning after the ferry left a Greek port en route to Ancona, Italy. The ship’s captain and owner are under investigation.

Mr. Volpe said that law enforcement officers had already interviewed dozens of passengers, and that passengers’ cellphone images would be examined.

Survivors interviewed by the Italian news media described confusion and fear onboard, and braving cold winds and high waves as they waited rescue. The Norman Atlantic flies an Italian flag but had been leased by a Greek company, with crew members from both countries. - NY Times.

Tuesday, December 30, 2014

December 30, 2014 - FIJI- A
strong magnitude-6.1 earthquake has struck in waters near Fiji on
Tuesday, the U.S. Geological Survey says, but there are no immediate
reports of injuries or damage.

No tsunami warning was in effect
after the undersea quake struck 23 miles (37 km) north-northeast of Ndoi
Island, according to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre website.

USGS shakemap intensity.

The temblor struck at 21:17:23 UTC time at a depth of 371.7 miles (598.2 kilometres).

Earthquakes
are common to the region, as Fiji lies on the Pacific "Ring of Fire,"
an area where a large number of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur
in the basin of the Pacific Ocean.

Tectonic Summary - Seismotectonics of the Eastern Margin of the Australia Plate

The
eastern margin of the Australia plate is one of the most sesimically
active areas of the world due to high rates of convergence between the
Australia and Pacific plates. In the region of New Zealand, the 3000 km
long Australia-Pacific plate boundary extends from south of Macquarie
Island to the southern Kermadec Island chain. It includes an oceanic
transform (the Macquarie Ridge), two oppositely verging subduction zones
(Puysegur and Hikurangi), and a transpressive continental transform,
the Alpine Fault through South Island, New Zealand.

Since 1900 there have been 15 M7.5+ earthquakes recorded near New Zealand. Nine of these, and the four largest, occurred along or near the Macquarie Ridge, including the 1989 M8.2 event on the ridge itself, and the 2004 M8.1 event 200 km to the west of the plate boundary, reflecting intraplate deformation. The largest recorded earthquake in New Zealand itself was the 1931 M7.8 Hawke's Bay earthquake, which killed 256 people. The last M7.5+ earthquake along the Alpine Fault was 170 years ago; studies of the faults' strain accumulation suggest that similar events are likely to occur again.

North of New Zealand, the Australia-Pacific boundary stretches east of Tonga and Fiji to 250 km south of Samoa. For 2,200 km the trench is approximately linear, and includes two segments where old (greater than 120 Myr) Pacific oceanic lithosphere rapidly subducts westward (Kermadec and Tonga). At the northern end of the Tonga trench, the boundary curves sharply westward and changes along a 700 km-long segment from trench-normal subduction, to oblique subduction, to a left lateral transform-like structure.

USGS plate tectonics for the region.

Australia-Pacific convergence rates increase northward from 60 mm/yr at the southern Kermadec trench to 90 mm/yr at the northern Tonga trench; however, significant back arc extension (or equivalently, slab rollback) causes the consumption rate of subducting Pacific lithosphere to be much faster. The spreading rate in the Havre trough, west of the Kermadec trench, increases northward from 8 to 20 mm/yr. The southern tip of this spreading center is propagating into the North Island of New Zealand, rifting it apart. In the southern Lau Basin, west of the Tonga trench, the spreading rate increases northward from 60 to 90 mm/yr, and in the northern Lau Basin, multiple spreading centers result in an extension rate as high as 160 mm/yr. The overall subduction velocity of the Pacific plate is the vector sum of Australia-Pacific velocity and back arc spreading velocity: thus it increases northward along the Kermadec trench from 70 to 100 mm/yr, and along the Tonga trench from 150 to 240 mm/yr.

The Kermadec-Tonga subduction zone generates many large earthquakes on the interface between the descending Pacific and overriding Australia plates, within the two plates themselves and, less frequently, near the outer rise of the Pacific plate east of the trench. Since 1900, 40 M7.5+ earthquakes have been recorded, mostly north of 30°S. However, it is unclear whether any of the few historic M8+ events that have occurred close to the plate boundary were underthrusting events on the plate interface, or were intraplate earthquakes. On September 29, 2009, one of the largest normal fault (outer rise) earthquakes ever recorded (M8.1) occurred south of Samoa, 40 km east of the Tonga trench, generating a tsunami that killed at least 180 people.

Across the North Fiji Basin and to the west of the Vanuatu Islands, the Australia plate again subducts eastwards beneath the Pacific, at the North New Hebrides trench. At the southern end of this trench, east of the Loyalty Islands, the plate boundary curves east into an oceanic transform-like structure analogous to the one north of Tonga.

Australia-Pacific convergence rates increase northward from 80 to 90 mm/yr along the North New Hebrides trench, but the Australia plate consumption rate is increased by extension in the back arc and in the North Fiji Basin. Back arc spreading occurs at a rate of 50 mm/yr along most of the subduction zone, except near ~15°S, where the D'Entrecasteaux ridge intersects the trench and causes localized compression of 50 mm/yr in the back arc. Therefore, the Australia plate subduction velocity ranges from 120 mm/yr at the southern end of the North New Hebrides trench, to 40 mm/yr at the D'Entrecasteaux ridge-trench intersection, to 170 mm/yr at the northern end of the trench.

Large earthquakes are common along the North New Hebrides trench and have mechanisms associated with subduction tectonics, though occasional strike slip earthquakes occur near the subduction of the D'Entrecasteaux ridge. Within the subduction zone 34 M7.5+ earthquakes have been recorded since 1900. On October 7, 2009, a large interplate thrust fault earthquake (M7.6) in the northern North New Hebrides subduction zone was followed 15 minutes later by an even larger interplate event (M7.8) 60 km to the north. It is likely that the first event triggered the second of the so-called earthquake "doublet".

December 30, 2014 - CALIFORNIA
- A storm and cold air forecast to develop at the end of 2014 and
linger into the start of 2015 will deliver snow, rain and a frost or
freeze to portions of California.

The coldest air of the winter months so far will settle over California during the middle part of this week.
At the same time, a storm will form nearby and bring snow and slippery travel to the passes and high deserts of California.

While temperatures are not forecast to drop to record-low territory for much of the state, the air will get cold enough long enough to bring a frost and freeze to the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys, as well as part of the central coast of California.

Record lows over much of the area range from the upper teens to the middle 20s during the end of December into the first part of January. Temperatures are not forecast to drop as low as that of mid-December of 2013.

According to AccuWeather.com Agricultural Meteorologist Dale Mohler, "We expect temperatures to drop to between 24 and 29 degrees F over the San Joaquin Valley with a few isolated cold pockets dipping to 22 F each night through Thursday night."

"Temperatures will drop below 28 F for two to five hours in some locations, which is the level where damage can occur to the citrus crop if preventative measures are not taken," Mohler said.

Temperatures are forecast to drop as low as the middle 20s to near 30 degrees for a couple of hours in agricultural areas of Southern California Thursday night into Friday night.

According to California Citrus Mutual (CCM), the rind on California citrus crops is thicker and offers more protection from freezing temperatures, when compared to those in Florida. Brief episodes with temperatures near or just below freezing contribute to a sweeter crop.

Other fruit, vegetable and flower plants in the state, if left unprotected, could be damaged.

While frosty and freezing temperatures will cause its share of concerns, snow will also visit the region.

Enough snow is forecast to fall on the passes of the state to cause slippery travel and delays.

While a few inches of snow forecast for Donner Pass will be a minor problem for crews and travelers on Interstate 80, even a small amount of snow can lead to major troubles for commuters over Tejon Pass on I-5 and Cajon Pass on I-15.

The snow is forecast to fall over the northern Sierra Nevada along with locally gusty winds on Tuesday and over the mountains of Southern California Tuesday evening into Wednesday.

Showers of rain and wet snow are possible over the high deserts and could reach lower elevations over the interior of Southern California, such as Palm Springs and the Mojave Desert.

The storm will also bring some cold rain showers to coastal Southern California on Tuesday and Wednesday. However, the amount of rain is not likely to significantly impact drought conditions in the region. Little to no rain is forecast in lower elevations with the storm over northern and central California.

More significant rain and snow will fall farther inland over the Southwest. A small amount of snow is forecast to fall on Las Vegas, with heavy snow likely in the mountains of northern Arizona, southern Nevada and the Four Corners region in general.

When combined with brisk winds, AccuWeather.com RealFeel® Temperatures will dip into the 30s at times around Los Angeles and San Diego at midweek for New Year's Eve revelers.

For the thousands of people lining the streets of Pasadena, California, for the Tournament of Roses Parade on New Year's Day, temperatures will dip to near the freezing mark during the early morning hours and will climb through the 40s later in the morning with a return of sunshine.

For college football fans heading to the Rose Bowl on New Year's Day, temperatures prior to the start of the game will be well into the 50s under sunshine, but will drop back to chilly levels in the evening as the sun goes down.

December 30, 2014 - EARTH -
During the 20th century the geomagnetic North Pole moved 1100 km, and
since 1970 its rate of motion has accelerated from 9 km/year to
approximately 52 km/year (2001–2007 average; see also Polar drift).

NOAA
made some significant and apparently linear changes to the pole
location data going back to the years 2001 through 2010. The most
noticeable result of the changes that they made was an overall linear
slow down of the shift during the past decade, although still at a high
rate of speed. They have projected positional data through 2015 and have
slowed the pace of movement each subsequent year from 30 miles (2012)
to 24 miles (2015).

December 30, 2014 - UKRAINE
- A radioactive leak has been detected at Ukraine’s Zaporizhia Nuclear
Power Plant, the largest in Europe, a media report says, citing the
country’s emergency services. The report claims that levels of radiation
are 16 times the legally permitted norm.LifeNews
published a leaked report by the State Emergency Service of Ukraine,
which denies an earlier assessment by the plant’s authorities that the
radiation at the facility is equal to the natural background following
an incident on Sunday.

RT is trying to verify the report.

On
Sunday, one reactor at the plant was automatically shut down after a
glitch, becoming the second halt in operations in recent weeks. The
reactor was running at 40 percent of nominal power, the plant's official
website said, adding that radiation at the facility being at the level
of 8-12 microroentgens an hour.

The error was later announced
to have been corrected, and the troubled unit – Power Block # 6 – was
plugged back into the network.

On November 28, Zaporizhia's Unit 3
was switched off for almost a week. The shutdown, which was reportedly
caused by a short circuit, was made public five days later, when
Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk revealed it during the first
meeting of his new Cabinet.

Zaporizhia nuclear power plant is
one of the four nuclear power plants in the country, which together
supply a large part of Ukraine's energy needs. The Zaporizhia plant
alone, Europe's largest, supplies at least one-fifth of the country’s
power needs. It is the world’s fifth-largest nuclear power plant. - RT.

One
unit of Ukraine’s Zaporozhiya nuclear power plant, the largest in
Europe, has been taken offline… State nuclear power company Energoatom
says the unit was disconnected… to prevent internal damage to the
generator. It did not give further details, but said radiation in the
area is within acceptable limits. It is the second time this month that a unit at the plant has been taken out of service… - AP.Ukraine turns off reactor at its most powerful nuclear plant after ‘accident’;
Prime Minister calls for the truth as electrical fault revives memories
of Chernobyl… An official statement said the plant was “operating at 40
per cent power… The reasons for the outage are being investigated”…
Prime Minister, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, noted the previous outage… urging
ministers to tell the truth about “the accident”… In May the power
station was the backdrop to an armed confrontation… the pro-Ukrainian
paramilitary force… said it had come to remove “pro-Russian” agitators
who, it claimed, had been operating inside the plant. - The Independent.Radiation Levels Spike at Zaporhizhia Nuclear Plant: DPR Official
— According to Donetsk People’s Republic official radiation spike was
caused by a failed attempt to replace Russian-made fuel rods with US
components. Radiation levels at the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant are
14 times higher than normal, according to DPR representative Denis Pushilin… Energoatom denied Pushilin’s claims… - Rossiya Segodnya.

Interfax
reported that in a statement on Dec. 28, Pushilin said Ukraine faces “a
second Chornobyl” due to Kyiv’s decision to use nuclear fuel supplied
by Westinghouse… Westinghouse has a contract to supply some 10 percent to 15 percent of Ukraine’s nuclear fuel. - RFE.Separatist Official Warns Of Second Chornobyl…
Pushilin said “currently the level of radiation is 14 times higher than
the acceptable norm” in the area… [Interfax] noted that it could not
confirm “from any other source” the separatist official’s claim of
dangerous levels of radioactivity. - RFE.Emergency shutdown at Ukraine’s largest nuclear power plant…This accidenttook place on Sunday morning… Causes are still being investigated… Two Zaporizhia NPP reactors are to be decommissioned for complete
overhaul in February 2015… Throughout 2014 Zaporizhzhya NPP came into
the spotlight of world media on several occasions. In May, Ukrainian
police prevented a group of armed men… from entering… Then the news came
that Kiev had signed a new deal with America’s leading nuclear fuel
producer, Westinghouse… This was done despite the fact that using US
fuel rods was banned in 2012 due to dangerous incompatibility…In August, Greenpeace expressed concern that Zaporizhia NPP is
vulnerable to ‘direct bombardment’ in Ukraine if caught in the conflict.
- RT.Video about the initial incident here.

Ukraine in ‘full-blown financial crisis’ – National Bank head

Ukraine’s
GDP shrank by 7.5 percent from January till November 2014, as foreign
exchange reserves fell to their lowest level since 2009, and inflation
jumped to 21 percent by November, admits the head of the Ukraine’s
National Bank, Valeriya Gontareva.

The country’s foreign exchange
reserves shrank to $9.9 billion, as Kiev gave Naftogaz an estimated $8.6
billion to buy gas and settle state guaranteed Eurobonds. $3.1 billion
went to settle the debt with Russia’s Gazprom, Gontareva explained.

The conflict over Russia’s reunification with Crimea has killed more than 4,700 people has also killed the economy.“There is a full-blown financial crisis,” Gontareva told reporters Tuesday. “We can only overcome it if we implement quick and even extreme reforms.”

Ukraine’s national currency, the hryvnia, has lost half of its value by November.“…. There’s almost 100 percent devaluation in the country. From the economic territory, it’s called a 50 percent devaluation,” Gontareva said.

She said it is impossible to keep the hryvnia stable.“This is simply an unrealistic task, because it’s not fixed in any constitution.”

Earlier
in the week, after the unprecedented 10–hour session the Ukrainian
parliament adopted the 2015 budget that sees a number of drastic cuts
and import duty raised to 10 percent, which should give way to new IMF
funds. The last IMF estimate showed that Ukraine needs another $15
billion, on top of the $17 billion the Fund had already agreed to
allocate. - RT.